HYLAS-4 is a telecommunications satellite owned and operated by

Avanti Communications Avanti Communications is a UK based satellite operator, selling wholesale satellite broadband and satellite connectivity services to Internet Service Providers, Mobile Network Operators, Enterprises, Governments and other satellite operators. The A ...

and manufactured by

Orbital ATK Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...

(now

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...

) that was launched by an

Ariane 5 Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads in ...

rocket on 5 April 2018.

Mission

The satellite is built to provide high speed data transmission services to Africa, Latin America and Europe. It is based on Orbital ATK's Star-3 Bus, delivering 64 28 GHz fixed beams covering Africa and parts of Europe. There are also four independent steerable beams that can serve Africa, South America and Europe. The capacity will partially be used to allow Avanti to expand into new markets and provide growth for existing markets.

Launch

The satellite was launched into

geosynchronous orbit A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbita ...

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

on an Ariane 5 rocket in its ECA variant from

ELA-3 ELA-3 (french: Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 3, lit=Ariane Launch Complex 3), is a launch pad and associated facilities at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. ELA-3 is operated by Arianespace as part of the expendable launch system f ...

Guiana Space Centre The Guiana Space Centre (french: links=no, Centre spatial guyanais; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximatel ...

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label= French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas ...

. The launch was originally planned in early 2017 but has been delayed to 21 March 2018, and then to 5 April 2018. The satellite reached its geostationary orbital position by 19 April 2018.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2018 Spacecraft launched in 2018 Ariane commercial payloads Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Communications satellites of the United Kingdom 2018 in the United Kingdom